The masses need to throw off the white elites
I don’t know how many times I’ve read a variation on that theme … usually from people who know nothing about Mexico, but who are quick to prescribe solutions (usually involving a lot of guns) for problems that don’t really affect Mexico.
It gets old… besides which, there is no “white elite” class. There are rich people, many of whom are descended from Europeans, but that’s as much a function of human nature as anything. Guys tend to meet the mother of their future children among their peers. And the children of the Europeans who arrived in the 1930s and 40s with a lot of cash in their pockets made a bundle of money, and sent their kids to schools with other Europeans with money. And, too, there are families like the Terrazas-Creel clan of Chihuahua, whose “dynastic” marriages bringing in spouses from the United States’ own “white elite.” Just like the U.S. where you have some very rich families that have always been rich, and married other rich people — or whose ancestors did well because they arrived with capital and skills at the right time. As Malcolm Forbes noted years ago, “The only sure way to make a large fortune is to inherit one.”
I bring this up because the United States (where people have a lot of guns) is wising up to the fact that they’re controlled by their own elites… more so that at any time since 1917:
Daniel Tencher (Raw Story) writes:
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now have a larger share of total income than they ever have in records going back nearly a century — an even larger amount than during the Roaring Twenties, the last time the US saw such similar disparities in wealth.
In recent years, the fact that differences between rich and poor are the greatest they’ve been since the Great Depression has become a popular talking point among liberal-leaning economists.
But an updated study (PDF) from University of California-Berkeley economist Emanuel Saez shows that, in 2007, the wealth disparity grew to its highest number on record, based on US tax data going back to 1917.
Maybe Mexicans should start posting on U.S. websites, offering prescriptions for their own ills. Interesting that economic disparity is always mentioned as a recipe for political and social instability in Latin America, but when it comes to the United States,
There is no consensus among economists on whether large disparities in income lead to economic disruption, but it is hard to ignore the correlation between rising income inequality and the onset of economic crisis. The last time the US saw similar differences in income was in 1928 and 1929, just before the start of the Great Depression.
Reuters:
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico and Brazil should negotiate a free trade agreement to boost commercial ties, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Saturday.
Calderon, who is in Brazil for a state visit, is a staunch supporter of free trade and has argued that opening up trade is the easiest way for poor nations to develop their economies.
“Today we should understand that the opportunity for Mexico and Brazil is a greater integration of commercial ties,” Calderon said in a speech in Sao Paulo, Mexican media reported.
Mexico’s economy has been slammed by the recession in the United States, its biggest trading partner. Gross domestic product is expected to contract by at least 6.5 percent this year, putting Mexico on track for its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Mexico currently sends about 80 percent of its exports to its neighbor to the north.
…
I don’t believe there’s any more “free trade” than there is a free lunch, but I’ve said several times over the last three years that one of the biggest problems with the Mexican economy was that it was too tied to the United States… and that NAFTA was, inadvertently or otherwise, a one way street (leading to the poorhouse, for the independent Mexican farmer who didn’t want to go into the marijuana trade).
The other point (and one I’d need to check) is that this is about the 30th of the 50 points in the Lopez Obrador “50-point plan” for the Mexican economy that the Calderon Administration said they’d never consider… but now do.
Food for thought — Sunday readings
Feeding addictions
“Visitation” sounds odd to English-speakers, but “visitador” is used in Spanish for a special investigator who may or may not have prosecutorial powers. In colonial Neuva Espagna, the “visitador general” routinely checked the colony, went over the Viceroy’s books, and — when necessary — acted as a roving police chief, judge and prosecutor roled into one.
The Vatican has sent a “vistor” to the Legionaires of Christ and Regun Cristi to look into, among other things, the secret life of their founder — and Pope John-Paul II’s advisor on all things Mexican, Marciel Maciel. American Papist has been following the sordid tale — including fathering as many as six childen in Mexico (one mother being a minor at the time) and reaches a few conclusions:
- Fr. Maciel was an extraordinary, calculating fraud and he ought to be acknowledged as such by the leaders of the Legion and Regnum Christi alike
- The breadth of Fr. Maciel’s crimes makes it nearly impossible that other members of the Legion did not know of them, and they ought to be brought to justice
- The serious financial infraction of misusing lay resources (money, property, etc) for the upkeep of Fr. Maciel’s mistress and his other escapades demands restitution
- The ongoing revelations about Fr. Maciel and his enablers requires an intense examination, person-by-person, of those still charged with the movement’s leadership
Taking the food right out of their mouths
Secret History on the disruption to the Corona Market a couple of blocks from the Museo Cabanas, where the North American Summit was held earlier this week:
I’m good with the US going south to discuss its protectionist policies that will strip Mexico and Canada of billions in trade dollars, but it also served as an interesting reminder that we can’t even visit Mexico without ripping the food out of somebody’s mouth.
Bad Health Food
Whole Foods made its reputation in the United States selling organic and healthy foods, which you’d think would make them somewhat aware of health issues. And public access to health care. Sady No:
Read this loathsome op-ed by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods and part-time Yahoo sockpuppet, and I guarantee you it’s the last time you’ll be buying haricots verts, mahi-mahi, gluten-free sawdust bread, tofurkey kebabs, herbal boner pills or anything else from Whole Foods
Mackey’s op-ed bills itself as “The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare.” Your first signal of what might be coming, of course, is “ObamaCare,” And your second clue is the immediately following quotation from Ste. Margaret Thatcher.
Well, that sucks!
Maggie’s Madness is more the angry sort of mad than the loco sort. Or maybe anger at the loco-ness of it all:
… yesterday PEMEX issued a statement through Mexico City which was posted on Frontera’s national news headlines last night and then El Mex picked the statement up this morning. What PEMEX said is that there were three new outlets syphoning fuel from underground pipelines in Baja California which they closed with the assistance of the Federal authorities and the Mexican Army. They stated that these three outlets were in ROSARITO BEACH and MEXICALI. Yet, two days ago we were told the fuel syphoning incident in Tijuana at K29 on the Tijuana-Tecate highway was the first to be reported in Baja California. No other specific information was given, and we are to assume that these three do not include the one shut down a couple of days ago in TIJUANA. So, that makes four in this northern area.
…
BTW, the fuel in Baja California is imported from the US, subsidies are put on this fuel by the Mexican government to keep the price lower here in Baja. Jeez, I wonder what happened at those other three sites PEMEX noted?
Given the better-ballyhooed thefts from Pemex lines in the east — which led to some fines and criminal charges in the United States (which, involving Texas oil men are de facto going to involve Bush family associates) the Baja thefts seem to be overlooked.
Still, that’s a lot of Mexican oil going north that isn’t accounted for. According to Reuters (and others), “Pemex found nearly 400 illegal connections to its pipelines last year and estimated its losses at $700 million.” I don’t know (and don’t know where to look) for estimates on oil thefts from other national pipeline networks. The numbers are alarming, but how do they stack up to thefts from pipelines in Nigeria, or Russia or Ecuador… or Canada for that matter? I suspect PEMEX’s losses are much higher than others — but I wouldn’t directly attribute the losses to the super-villain Zetas.
As I’ve said before, I think “Zeta” is just a generic term now for organized gangsters, and there is some cooperation between criminals — and in this case, officials. But narco-gangsters are only indirectly responsible.
One big difference with most other countries is that “National Security” in Mexico includes natural resource protection — waterways, forests and oil fields among them. Where I live, the Navy is out patrolling for illegal fishing boats, and elsewhere watching the ports and oil platforms. As they should.
The attempt to denationalize PEMEX was partially successful. The company was broken up into different operational areas, with different management — and some services were turned over to outside contractors. The oil platforms, the refineries, ports, chemical plants are all secured, but no one, it seems, has overall responsibility for pipeline security. Add the lack of any real regulations for private security firms and “Houston, we have an opportunity”. Pipeline security SHOULD be the Army’s job.
Unfortunately, the Army — which is quite small — has been diverted into one specific activity (the “drug war”) to the extent that it isn’t in a position to perform its traditional tasks. Lumber lefts, as well as oil thefts, are on a massive scale and well-organized operations. The Army just doesn’t have the manpower, or the resources, to stop the looting, nor — given the Calderon Administration’s fixation on the narcotics exporters — does it appear that there will be more focus on these problems unless there are massive scandals like the PEMEX thefts.
Low skilled immigrant labor for a better middle-class?
That, according to a paper written for the Cato Institute by Australian researchers Peter B. Dixon and Maureen T. Rimmer. Dixon and Rimmer’s study finds that enforcement of immigration laws directed at low-skilled labor costs more than it saves in public expenditures, and that:
Legalization would eliminate smugglers’ fees and other costs faced by illegal immigrants. It would also allow immigrants to have higher productivity and create more openings for Americans in higherskilled occupations. The positive impact for U.S. households of legalization under an optimal visa tax would be 1.27 percent of GDP or $180 billion.
In other words, it means immigrants would arrive with more money to spend (on things like housing) and less likely to rack up expensive state-funded assistance like emergency room visits (because they’d be able to go to a doctor before there was an emergency). And, because you had more lower-skilled workers available, it would create a need for more higher-skilled positions (managers, salesmen, etc.).
The Cato Institute, of course, is a “libertarian” think tank, which presumes that the market (whatever that is), and not the state, not religion, not cultural tradition, should determine the course of public affairs. And, to a large extent, was the thinking that brought us globalism and its discontents.
Virtual slavery… in the virtual United States
Via Latin American Herald Tribune (Caracas)
MEXICO CITY – Hundreds of farm workers in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur are being exploited by employers who trick them into believing they are in the United States and keep them in line with threats of deportation, the state’s official Human Rights Commission said.
Commission chairman Jordan Arrazola told capital daily Milenio in an interview published Friday that … “They make them (the workers) believe they are in the United States and don’t let them go out, they practically have them locked up,” Arrazola said.
“The foremen threaten to report them to ‘la migra’ (U.S. immigration authorities) to get them deported,” the official said.
Violations of human rights are common on many of the 40 large farms in Baja California Sur that grow vegetables for export to the United States, he said, noting that most of the workers are recruited from Mexico’s poorest, least-developed regions.
…
The moral of the story being… ??
I don’t know. That workers expect they’ll be exploited, and fear what “la migra” would do is t worse than what’s going on at those farms?
I wonder if they pay in U.S. dollars, or company store script.
Friday night video and tourist warning
(Sombrero tip to Sabina)
While Spring Break is a long ways off, and Mazatlan is more a geezer resort than most, tourists everywhere should take heed — don’t be a dick, or you’ll get burned.
Marina Fanouraki, a resident of the Isle of Crete, had had fame (or something else) thrust upon her. Her quick thinking response to the situation has made her not just a national heroine to the Greeks, but a role model for the “native women” of resort communities throughout the world:
… According to a police report, the intoxicated party-goer had taken down his pants and was waving his genitals at women in the bar. He then “forcefully fondled” the 26-year-old woman and asked her to take hold of his genitals.
She responded by soaking his genitals in a liquor. When this failed to cool off his advances, she reportedly grabbed a lighter and set his nether-region on fire.
The alleged sex assailant is hospitalized with what the Telegraph describes as “considerable damage” to his penis and testicles…
What else is there to say?
I’m an idiote and I voete
(Expropriated for the amusement of the masses from Kiss My Big Blue Butt)
With my guitar in my hand…
… or… what good’s a revolution if you can’t sing? ¡Viva Zapata!, ¡Viva Javier Solis!
¡AZUCAR!
Jack Tomas at Guanabee manages to put the latest in agro-imperialism into simple, readable terms:
A sugar shortage is imminent according several giant food conglomerates. They appealed to agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack to ease trade restrictions on sugar producing countries. The companies including Kraft Foods, General Mills, and Hershey,Co. say they will no longer have sugar to make their cookies and other taste treats (no twinkies!) The real problem comes from America’s huge farm subsidies to corn manufacturers and their strategy to make sugar importation from Latin America cost prohibitive for producers. Our government is literally taking away our cookies.
Sugar has always been the life blood of Latin America. The Spanish and Portuguese created huge sugar plantations in Cuba, Brazil, Central America and elsewhere to supply Europe’s sweet tooth. Sugar conglomerates grew to control vast swaths of land producing millions of tons of sugar. Many of these companies were owned by Americans who ran the sugar plantations as virtual fiefdoms with serfs working the land for little pay. Then in the 1960’s and 70’s Latin American countries began to take over their countries’ sugar production. The price of sugar rose dramatically making it difficult for U.S. companies to keep up. So, the government created the farm subsidies for corn production in which they artificially inflated the price of corn so farmers would produce increasing amounts of it without losing money. They turned this corn into corn syrup which is in nearly every product we eat. These corn subsidies hurt Latin America because it robs them of the huge American market for their sugar. This is also the reason that the United States has imposed such heavy tariffs on sugar importation. The other reason for the U.S. policy towards Latin American sugar is that they want to control the production of ethanol which can be made from sugar or corn. If Latin American sugar production became too profitable then they would have no need for our oil or ethanol.
What we do know is that we Americans are getting fatter eating all this processed corn crap. Why does Mexican Coke taste so much better than Yanqui Coke: Azucar!
State expropriation of the sugar mills goes back to the 1930s, with Lazaro Cardenas’ take-over of the mills in Michoacan. Nationalization followed during Cardenas’ tenure at Los Pinos, which allowed small-time sugar growers to stay in business up until the de-nationalization craze of the 90s. Several of the “privatized” mills went belly-up and appealed to the federal government to be taken over. Under the Fox Administration, corn sweetener was allowed to enter the country, forcing small operators out of business and a drop in sugar prices. With renewed interest in ethanol, Mexican sugar would be a better option for this country than corn ethanol, but… that would not benefit Cargill, Archer-Daniels-Midland, and friends. Unless, of course, those small farmers are forced out of business, and larger companies buy up the sugar cane fields. Which they will.
Soccer is life
From Sadly No:
Right now, there’s 37 countries ahead of [The United States] on the life expectancy list. And every goddamn one is full of people who are happy to watch a sport that always ends in a tie.
Well, something to be said about a life full of uncertainty, though the Azteca game was not one of them. Nor was it a tie.
2 to 1, overall record 23-0-1. Cry, baby, cry!
The birthday boy
Today is former Mexico City tourist photographer Fidel Castro’s 83rd birthday.
Returning to his native Cuba in 1959 for a new career, and — since his retirement in 2006 — has kept active as a blogger and occasional book reviewer. He still takes an interest in tourism, as in this photo taken within the last ten days:
mexfiles.net 